Delray On Watch For Drug Deals

Housing Project's New Cameras Aim To Eliminate Illegal Acts

DELRAY BEACH - — LaShawn Smith sees drug deals go down every day near her apartment at Carver Estates, the city's public housing project.

"They'll do it right in front of you," the mother of three said. "They don't care."

But soon someone else will be watching, too.

The Delray Beach Housing Authority will install hidden surveillance cameras in all 15 buildings at the 200-unit complex, using a $60,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, local housing officials said on Wednesday.

The authority's director, Dorothy Ellington, will monitor the cameras from her office with several television screens, and will videotape what the cameras capture, according to local housing officials.

That way, officials hope, they can catch drug dealers in the act and have them removed from the premises.

"They need them cameras out here for real so they can catch some of them drug dealers," Smith said.

Michael Wright, a Housing Authority board member who is also an administrator for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, agreed.

"I'm for anything that would curb drug sales over there," Wright said, adding that he hopes to use some of the money for crime-prevention programs. "We've tried to make it as safe a community as we possibly can."

Funding will come from more than $15 million in grants made available to Florida communities on Tuesday to improve lighting, build fences, increase police patrols, give job training and pay for sports programs - all in an effort to deter crime in public housing.

Fort Lauderdale will use its $266,400 to pay for community policing, training and employment for residents, youth leadership activities and support for resident-owned businesses.

West Palm Beach will use $161,684 it receives for resident patrols and community police patrols to combat drug trafficking, among other measures.

The grants are part of $305 million worth of drug-elimination grants released nationwide this year.

"Our children will have a safe neighborhood to live in," said N. Lindsey, a mother of one girl who lives at Carver Estates and thinks that the cameras will help to stem both vandalism at the complex and drug sales.

"They can see who's doing the vandalism and drugs, and they can stop them from selling drugs to our children."